For this month's feature, we welcome guest writer, Amy Ullo, Communications Manager for workNet DuPage. Located in Lisle, IL, the workNet DuPage Career Center is home to several organizations working in partnership to provide employment services for employers and job seekers in DuPage County. workNet DuPage is a valued partner of World Relief.

February 14 has a special meaning for a refugee family in DuPage County.

Valentine’s Day signifies more than the wedding anniversary of Lian Mung and Sian Nu, a young couple from Myanmar (also known as Burma): it’s the date they arrived in the United States seeking safety from violence and persecution.

For the past half century, ethnic and religious conflicts have forced hundreds of thousands of Myanmarese to uproot their lives trying to escape devastating human rights abuses.

Lian, a Christian worship leader, fled his homeland in Tedim, Chin State, a mountainous northwestern tribal area of Myanmar. In 2008, he made the treacherous journey to Malaysia by way of Thailand smuggled in a van during the day and on foot at night in the jungle. At only 24 years of age, Lian left behind his wife, his mother, two younger sisters, and the only life he had ever known.

Mohammad Marie looks and acts like a typical high school senior—one that has spent his entire life living and learning in the United States. When I meet him, he’s wearing a hoodie, blue jeans, and tennis shoes. His backpack is loose on his shoulders. He owns an iPhone and he carries a pair of Apple airpods in his pocket. He greets his friends with high-fives, and he jokes lovingly with teachers using American slang and gestures. He has an Arabic accent, but his English is otherwise impeccable.

But Mohammad Marie is not a typical high school senior.

Mohammad and his family, which includes three brothers and a young sister, fled war-torn Syria earlier in the decade in order to seek safety in the neighboring country of Jordan.

“We left Syria because of huge civil war,” he explains. “The people were fighting the government. The government was of course stronger. They had a lot of heavy missiles and they started shooting people and shooting houses down and stuff.”

Mohammad is a charismatic young man who usually speaks with excitement. He’s usually very animated. But when he recounts the war in Syria for me, his tone is sober and his face lacks expression. The way he says “and stuff” seems to cut right to the truth of the matter. What more does one have to say after “heavy missiles” and “shooting people and houses down?” If I haven’t gotten the point by then, it’s likely that I never would.

In this month's feature, read how one exceptional woman rebuilt her life here in the United States, found the mental healthcare she needed, and overcame the odds stacked against her. Then, at the end of the article, please enjoy the poem, "A Lonely Girl," written by this remarkable person in both English and her native language of Urdu.

Thanks to partners like you, World Relief is able to provide needed counseling for refugees and other immigrants struggling to find help for the mental and emotional trauma that they have experienced.

Nazish is a poet both in words and action—gentle, calm, contemplative, deliberate. English is her second language, but she wields metaphor and turns phrases with charming purpose—an astonishing thing to witness considering she will occasionally pause mid-sentence to find the correct vocabulary. It’s like her heart knows the rhythm of what she wants to say long before her mind can find the words, and her soul is patient enough to make it work.

When Nazish enters the room and meets me for the first time, she smiles warmly, but I can see that behind her smile is uncertainty. I’ve been told she’s a bit nervous to sit down and conduct the interview, but I’ve also been told she’s eager to share her story. According to those that know Nazish, she has decided that she will no longer let fear prevent her from being a positive example for all the refugee women silently suffering from the untreated effects of mental illness. Before her own treatment, the fear she now conquers on a daily basis would most certainly have kept her at home rather than here now, sitting across from me, a stranger, to whom she will soon divulge details of a deeply personal persuasion about an often stigmatized condition for which many parts of the world, including her country of origin, still want her to feel shame.

In honor of Veterans' Day next month, we're proud to share this first-hand account of one refugee's escape from an Iranian prison and his quest to fight for the freedom of others as a member of the United States military.

The Iranian interrogator held up a ballpoint pen and warned me of its power.

“Can you see the small metal ball on the head of this pen?" he asked. "I can break your neck with this small metal ball. I only have to write two paragraphs and you'll be gone forever.”

After forty-six days of interrogation and torture, I knew that he wasn't lying. He could do whatever he wanted to me. There were no laws stopping him. He put his pen to paper and within a few hours, I found myself in Evin Prison, the scariest prison in the world.

The crisis in Venezuela was born during the presidency of Hugo Chávez, but it did not end with his reign. More than six years after Chávez’s death, the situation in Venezuela is worse than ever, and the economic fallout is considered by many to be more severe than that of the United States during the Great Depression, or that of Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Marked by hyperinflation, escalating starvation, disease, crime, political persecution, and rising mortality rates, there appears to be no immediate solution in sight, and this has resulted in massive emigration from the country.

Isabella Martinez was one of the many that fled Venezuela while the country continued to unravel.

“After Chávez died,” she explains, “the political situation got even worse. Things started to go bad for anyone who didn’t support the ruling party.”

“We come from a country in conflict, where we can be killed or raped at any moment. It’s a country where the government does not think about the governed, a country where injustice reigns, where the rich become richer and the poor poorer, and where human rights are not respected.”

Myrrha, her husband, and their three children are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country in central Africa that has been at war for over 20 years. Because they lived in Kinshasa, the capital, they were able to avoid the dangers of conflict for a long time. Myrrha had an MA in Public Health and a good job, and her husband worked in IT logistics. But in 2012, the conflict crept closer to Kinshasa.

Food prices soared. “You could go to buy bread one day, and the next day the price was double,” Myrrha remembers. Innocent civilians were killed in the streets and homes were broken into. Myrrha and her husband decided they would apply to emigrate to the U.S. Two years, several interviews, and mountains of paperwork later, they received their visas and arrived in Chicago in October 2016.

“Now the difficulty starts,” Myrrha continues. Because they had spent much of their savings applying for their visas, they only had a small amount left to restart their lives. They found an apartment, enrolled their two older children in school, and Myrrha’s husband found a job packaging food. But the stress of moving halfway around the world, and the uncertainty of the future began to take a toll.

Myrrha developed joint pain, chronic headaches, and severe back pain. She became unable to walk or to pick up her baby daughter. “I wanted to die,” Myrrha’s voice quiets. “I wanted to move back to Congo, but I didn’t come here for myself. I came here for my children.”

But then Myrrha learned about World Relief’s free English classes and Early Childhood program at College Church. Even though walking was difficult, she was determined to attend. She remembers in the early weeks of class, before her health improved, how volunteers would carry her baby daughter for her, making sure she was safe. “English class was the first time I went outside and met other people,” her face lights up again. “It gave me something to accomplish. It gave me hope.”

Through one of the volunteers in her class, Myrrha and her family were connected to Glen Ellyn Covenant Church, another one of World Relief’s church partners, which has become a strong network of support for them. “They are like my family. I did not choose them, but they love me.”

For Myrrha, World Relief’s ESL classes were not only a place to improve her English, but also a portal to connections and friendships that have enriched every part of her family’s life. Thinking about all of the ways their life is better now than when they arrived two years ago, she says, “I see how Christ is with me and my family, showing us the way. Now I smile. Before, I couldn’t smile.” And she beams.

All around us at World Relief stories are coming together and creating a new fabric of human experience. The stories of the people we serve here reflect the hardest realities of living in our world, but in the midst of their pain, they still hold a great vision for the future.

I have met many such people. Too many to count. And a great tragedy is that their voices, when they are needed the most, can be heard the least. Their voices call me to see something greater on the horizon. They speak to me about a vision that sees beyond a typical understanding of success to a vision of transformative community.

I sat in the living room of a recent refugee from Sudan. She is a wife and a mother of four. Her family had been in the U.S. for eight days and I was meeting with them to talk about how they envisioned this new life before them. We worked through my usual questions and became acquainted. Finally, we landed on the most challenging question: “What are your goals now that you are here in America?” She paused for a moment, looked into my eyes, and through an interpreter said, “I will reach a point where I can give back to the community. I will help those who have allowed me to come here.”

I didn’t know how to respond. Here was a woman who had lost everything when she was forced to run for her life, and yet even before she was able to provide for her own needs she was seeing far beyond what would occupy my mind. Her American dream was for a community, lifted up through the efforts of its members, and she was determined to be part of that movement.

We often have assumptions about the immigrant journey. Even people like myself, who are working directly with our new neighbors, hold these assumptions. It is easy to assume that an immigrant’s primary focus must be to improve their own life. When immigrants enter a country that will provide them with better opportunities, we expect them to be thinking only of their own family. Yet, this often isn’t the case. Many of the immigrants I have worked with express a larger vision that sees beyond what is ‘normal’ and into what is communal.

Another man speaking about his efforts to start and maintain various businesses both here and in his home country in Africa told me, “We have received so much from this community, so we have to reinvest in the community. We cannot only see for us, but beyond—for others. This is my vision. We can see beyond and have generational and community impact through our business and work effort.”

The stories of these new Americans will continue to evolve and shape the larger story around them. I am thankful for the great vision of my new neighbors who inspire me to lift my eyes to see beyond what is ‘normal’ and to see the ways that I too can give to my community.

Their stories can challenge each of us to shift our vision beyond our own personal circumstances. These immigrant voices can remind us of the great American experiment that has propelled our country for the past two centuries. This is the dream that our communities can rise to greater heights as we acknowledge our interdependence regardless of race, ethnicity or creed— that all people can belong and contribute. If you find yourself caught by this vision of seeing beyond, find out how you can join this movement by partnering with World Relief.

In our world today, over 68 million people have been forced from their homes due to conflict, including 25 million refugees. In spite of this, in the U.S. we have seen the sharpest decline in refugee resettlement since 1980. And many immigrants—including those seeking the safety of asylum— are fearful about how policy decisions will impact their future in the U.S.

In the face of these realities, there are many ways we can respond. We can advocate, volunteer, learn, talk with friends, or post on social media. These are all good and important responses. But during September, we specifically want to invite you to join us in a response of prayer.

At World Relief, we believe prayer is active resistance to pain, suffering, and evil, as we acknowledge God’s sovereignty in all things and plead with him to intervene in our world. Scott Arbeiter, World Relief’s President says, “In prayer, we rebel against the world as it is. In prayer, we refuse to accept what might seem unchangeable in our own hearts or the world around us.” We believe that prayer actually effects change; we recognize it as a vital way that we can stand with the most vulnerable in our community.

Last week at World Relief DuPage/Aurora, we began a 40-day prayer emphasis. While it is always important to pray, right now we feel a particular urgency to cry out to God. First, we pray because we expect the next month to bring U.S. policy decisions that will affect refugees and immigrants for years to come. But we also pray because we are witnesses to an increasingly hostile environment in which vulnerable people are vilified, and our faith demands that we intercede. All people are made in the image of God and loved by him, and God's word emphasizes his heart for people on the margins. As followers of Jesus, we want to have the same heart.

Each day through the end of September, WRDA’s staff are joining together to pray for refugees around the world and an end to the situations that are forcing people to flee their homes. We are praying that immigrants in the U.S. would find welcome and belonging through local churches and their communities. And we are praying that policies that will impact the lives of countless immigrants and refugees in our community would be marked by wisdom, justice, and compassion.

We are anchoring this season of prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 (ESV), which says,

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Would you consider joining us in this season of prayer? If you would like to participate, please consider setting aside time to pray regularly through the end of September.

Here are some specific requests to guide your prayer:

Pray that our country would remain a safe haven for refugees, and that our government would craft policies that focus on family unity and respect each person’s God-given dignity.

Pray that the U.S. would set a goal to welcome 75,000 refugees during the 2019 Fiscal Year.

Pray that refugees and asylum seekers who are still awaiting reunification with their loved ones would be reunited quickly.

Pray that refugees and immigrants who are already living in our communities would experience safety and find support as they rebuild their lives in a place of welcome.

Pray for refugee and asylee children as they grow up living in transit and insecurity without adequate access to education, medical care, and carefree play.

Pray for asylum seekers who are seeking safety through the southern U.S. border, and for protection and just policies that provide opportunities for asylum appeals to be heard.

Pray for God's peace to reign over the earth, especially in places of crisis where people are forced to flee their homes.

Here are some additional resources to help guide your prayer for refugees and immigrants.

We are so thankful to be united with people who are regularly praying for immigrants and refugees. And as we see the many ways that our community is growing, lives are changing, and people are learning from one another, we pray with anticipation that God hears our prayers and is at work among us to bring lasting transformation.

Tea Leaves Salad does it. My friend Sasha and I start our meal at Pa Lian Burmese Restaurant in Wheaton sharing a plate of this popular dish made of “grounded tea leaf, fried yellow beans, fried lava beans, fried peanuts, sesame seeds, sliced tomatoes, cabbage and lime”. It is crunchy, salty, and full of flavor—a perfect complement to the tiny cups of hot green tea we are served.

I order Shan Noodle as my main dish: clear flat rice noodles topped by ground chicken curry and soy bean paste, with a bowl of chicken soup on the side. After my first spicy bite of the curry, Tawk instructs me to ladle the broth over the noodles and mix well. He also graciously hands me a fork when I hesitate at my ability to eat noodles with chopsticks. I love the contrast of the slippery noodles with the crunch of the topping.

Sasha orders Nangyi Thoke: a salad of thick rice noodles, ground chicken, sliced shallots, hard-boiled eggs, tamarind sauce, fish sauce, and fried onions, served with a small bowl of chicken soup. She describes it as “tasty and texturally interesting, with thick, hollow noodles that make a playful elastic feeling in my mouth that contrasts with the crisp fried shallots.” It is mild, tangy, and yummy—something she’d order again.

TAWK'S STORY

Tawk pauses in the quiet hours between the lunch and dinner crowds to sit and tell us his story while we eat.

He grew up in the old capital city of Burma, called Rangoon (Yangon). He doesn’t call himself Burmese but rather Chin, which names the state from which his family comes. He obtained a civil engineering degree but soon learned that education didn’t matter to employers. Details such as parentage, religion, ethnicity, and birthplace topped all other qualifications.

Tawk eventually fled the persecution of a militaristic government and came here seeking political asylum, hoping for a safe place and a better life. He immediately began work at a Whole Foods deli every day of the week for twelve hours a day. He credits his deli friends as the best teachers he ever had, as they had the task of growing his textbook English to fluency. They also introduced him to American food. His favorite? Tuna salad, eaten on rice instead of bread. But he can’t stand one of our most iconic dishes: macaroni and cheese.

“I really appreciate those times. I will never forget it,” he says of his deli friends and early season of hard work at Whole Foods. He still goes back to visit them and they tell him with pride: “You made it.”

Tawk later began work as a case manager for World Relief, where he learned how to teach fellow refugees and immigrants how to survive in America. His message to them? You don’t need to adopt the American culture, but you need to learn about it. Explore and respect it and you will gain friends.

His work with Chin youth at church has shown him the widening gap between them and their parents. He boldly tells their parents: “Keep your culture but don’t mentally imprison your kids. They are changing; you have to change, too. Even if you don’t want to eat macaroni and cheese, you have to know what it is or you will lose connection with your kids. You can’t stop them from changing.”

Yet he continues to teach his own two little children the Chin language of Hakha, as well as cooking Burmese food for them at home.

Tawk knows the value of hard work. He says, “Don’t pray for things without doing anything. Appreciate the blessing and do something with it.” He knows that immigrants and refugees need courage—courage to get the education they need here and courage to work hard to survive.

Tawk has modeled hard work and courage. He and his wife saw family members opening small grocery stores and restaurants in Dallas and Indianapolis and decided to take the chance themselves. They spent a year renovating this space before opening their doors, which are now open six days a week from morning until night. They also provide carry-out and catering.

BURMESE FOOD

We ask him to tell us more about the food. He launches into an explanation of Burmese history—how their food was impacted by Indian and Chinese people brought to Burma by the Japanese in World War II. Burmese food relies heavily on onion, garlic, ginger, Thai hot peppers, Burmese kimchee, rice and noodles. They incorporate all kinds of meat as well: chicken, beef, pork, and seafood. Their dishes are spicy, salty, and sometimes sour—but within the realm of what a tamer American tongue can savor and appreciate.

Tawk does an excellent job explaining the dishes on the extensive menu. He plans to add ice cream flavored with mango and coconut as well as tea leaf cheesecake as dessert options. He says his most popular items are the curries, fried rice, noodle salads, and soups. He does all of the serving because he wants to explain each food to the customers, while teaching them about his country.

Pa Lian saw many Burmese customers the first month it opened, followed by a mix of Filipinos, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, and Americans. Tawk sees at least twenty of the same customers return a few times each week for fried rice and tea leaves salad.

What is the most rewarding thing about owning the restaurant? Tawk answers this question with pride. “We bring a totally new taste. New flavors to town. People say, ‘We never had that before. Your food is so good. We are so glad you are here.’ They encourage me.”

Yet at the same time he admits that he is tired. He also gives us a brief glimpse into the loneliness and isolation he feels in American culture, which may be part of the drive behind creating a restaurant to connect different cultures over a shared love of new food.

Sasha and I finish our meal sharing a glass of fresh lime juice mixed with water and lightly sweetened with sugar. It is a perfect end to the explosion of flavors from our dishes.

As we prepare to go, Tawk reminds us of his mission. “It’s not only about the business. Our heart is to bring new food to the town and impact the community. Learn about Burma: our culture and our food, too.”

“My place is a place for connections,” he adds. He’s right. I have discovered a new friend and new food at Pa Lian, and I’ll be back.

God of our past and God of our future,
It is in your presence that we stand in this empty place,
Asking that before it is full of things and full of day to day activity,
That it first be filled by you,
By Your Spirit and
By Your Love.

We praise you for your faithfulness to World Relief DuPage/Aurora over the past 4 decades -
For the places you have provided as a “home” for this ministry,
For the office behind the laundromat that once stood at College Avenue and President St,
And for the building, for “Scripture Press”, that has been our home for the last 20 years.
In all of this we see your hand of provision and of grace
And we know this this new place, our next home, is also a gift from you. We are deeply grateful, Lord.

In the newness of this place we are reminded
That you ever go before us and before those we serve, making a way for us all.
We see in these walls and hallways that you are providing a place of help and a place of peace.
We know that there are people in our world today who do not yet know they will one day come to this place.
Today there is a distant family who does not know that they will one day have to flee their home.
When that day of violence, loss, and fear comes in their lives, Lord, we pray for their safety.
And we thank you that you are going before them,
Establishing, even now, this place where they will find help, comfort, and a reflection of your love.

We thank you for the people of WRDA who embody that reflection of love,
For all those that you have called to join you in this ministry of welcome.
For those who have served on staff and as volunteers in the past,
We give your praise for their faithful service.
For those who are the staff and volunteers today,
We give you thanks for their hearts to serve all those whom you will bring through these doors.
For those that you will call to serve here in the future,
We give you praise for providing today in advance this place for their future service.
Thank you for all those who serve and who have answered your call…
First to love you with all their heart, soul, mind and strength -
And then to love their neighbor as themselves.
May this be a place that they find a new commitment to your call on their lives,
And renewed fellowship with one another through serving.

Gracious Lord,
For the stressful days to come in the place, we pray your peace;
For the sad days to come in this place, we ask your comfort;
And for the joyous days to come in this place, we give you praise.

May all of the days lived within these wall be for your honor and your glory,
For you alone are worthy of our work, our worship and our praise.

Celebrating Our Past

“We are changing!!”

Recently one of our staff found an old WRDA newsletter from 1998 (pictured here), announcing the move to our current DuPage office space at 1825 College Avenue in Wheaton. When our leaders made the decision to move out of a cramped office behind a Wheaton laundromat and into a building owned by Wheaton College, they were stepping out in faith to a space that would allow them to serve more refugees and immigrants, in new ways. They had no idea what was on the other side of this decision, and what these twenty years would bring. Little did they know that God would use World Relief DuPage/Aurora to mobilize hundreds of volunteers and churches and grow to serve thousands of refugees and immigrants each year.

During the last twenty years at the Wheaton location, we have watched God faithfully provide as:

Over 250 churches engaged in a ministry of welcome among refugees and immigrants.

Our location in Aurora launched in 1999, partnering with churches to support immigrants and refugees through a localized, holistic approach toward community integration.

We have witnessed refugees buying homes and starting small businesses, and immigrants being reunited with family members. Youth have gone on to graduate from high school and college, and elderly adults have found fun and community in World Relief’s Seniors Groups. Civic engagement continues to grow as thousands of refugees and immigrants have become citizens. Over twenty churches have been started by refugee communities, providing community support and the opportunity to worship in their own language.

None of this happens because of World Relief alone. These results happen because of the strength of the people we serve, and their resilience and courage as they create their future in a new place. And you – our volunteers, church partners, donors, community partners, and local advocates – play a vital role in the story behind these numbers. You have made possible the tremendous impact we celebrate as we reflect on the last two decades.

Reimagining Our Future

Next week, on June 8, we will move to 191 S. Gary Avenue in Carol Stream, our new DuPage County location.

We searched for an affordable, central DuPage office location for over a year after we learned that our current space would be closing to tenants, and are abundantly grateful for God’s provision of this new space. We are also deeply grateful to Wheaton College for its supportive role as our landlord these past twenty years, enabling World Relief’s ministry to flourish even in hard times.

Our move comes during a season in which we are reimagining the future of our ministry. Our ministry roots lie within refugee resettlement, and we remain committed to partnering with churches to welcome refugees who arrive to our community, seeking safety and the opportunity to build a new life. And yet for many years, we have dreamt of having the capacity to mobilize churches to serve vulnerable immigrants who are not newly arrived refugees: the asylum seeker living out of her car, the victim of human trafficking who is seeking a reliable job and counseling, the immigrant who survived a violent crime in the US and is trying to find healing. We are reimagining a future in which we will expand our church-based refugee resettlement approach to serve immigrants who face unique vulnerabilities. We look forward to sharing more about these plans with you in the coming months.

As we celebrate the past and look forward to a future with a new DuPage location and new ministry opportunities in both DuPage County and Aurora, we hope you will continue to celebrate and journey with us. Please continue to pray for immigrants and refugees, seek opportunities to get involved, and consider giving to support the future of WRDA’s ministry. We look forward in faith to the time when people will look back and point to the many ways lives were transformed through the love and welcome of thousands in our communities.

Are you able to help on move day? We are still in need of a few strong people to help with moving furniture and boxes on June 8th and 9th. Please contact Maggie Boynton at mboynton@wr.org if you’re interested. And please continue to pray that all of the details and logistics will come together.

Kywe,* an older Burmese man of small stature and gentle spirit finds a seat in the front of the classroom every day. During lessons, he sits up straight, focusing closely on the curves of every letter the teacher writes on the board. He furiously copies it all, apologizing under his breath when he makes a mistake. When we read together, he follows along in a bashful, hushed tone. That's the only time I hear him speak.

Admittedly, my interaction with Kywe has been minimal until this week. I would ask him how he was - the only question he would answer. That was the extent of our conversation. If I asked him what he did yesterday, he would look at me, and after a while, smile shyly. I would smile back. I wasn’t sure if I should press further, for fear of misunderstanding or making him feel uncomfortable.

Today, however, I sat next to him in class to help him hear the teacher. He needs a hearing aid in one ear. As I sat down, he looked at me in fear, waving his hands, and said, "No English, no English." How sad, I thought. If he is afraid to speak or listen to English in such a safe environment, he probably never speaks out in the community. How will we help him if he is so afraid? How will he communicate?

Later during the class, the teacher suggested I take him out of the room to figure out why he was uncomfortable speaking. Clearly he was afraid, but why? I sat down next to him on the side of his good ear and began asking him questions. I waited patiently for each answer, but eventually, they started to flow.

Kywe told me about his family and how his wife had recently passed away. He told me about her likes and dislikes and those of his sons. Through this, I learned a small part of his story; a story of perseverance, strength, and love. When he got stuck, he would explain that he couldn't speak English. But I told him that even though it was broken English, and slow in coming, he could speak!

The next day, the teacher sat with him, helping him hear as I taught the lesson. When I asked for a volunteer in the class to answer a question, he eagerly sat straight up, almost coming out of his chair ready to answer. The teacher pointed for me to call on him, and he gave an answer! It wasn't the answer I was looking for, but it wasn't wrong either. We praised his participation!

In a matter of 24 hours, I saw Kywe change. It was tangible. I hope it's sustainable. He found the courage to speak up! He was able to hear and follow the classroom activity. I can't be sure exactly what changed inside of him, but I can continue to encourage him to speak by listening and giving him time to respond.

Kywe helped me learn the value of taking the risk of misunderstanding to speak with someone. You never know how someone’s story might change you. At World Relief, our goal is to continue providing the kind of community in which both English students like Kywe and interns and volunteers like myself are safe to take risks so that together we can thrive.

Keith and Lisa’s volunteer journey with World Relief DuPage/Aurora (WRDA) began over three years ago after they had retired from full-time work. “We wanted to have purpose in our retirement years and to serve God together in ministry,” they remember.

After hearing about World Relief's ministry through their church, they learned about the need for ESL tutors to help newly resettled refugee families practice English in their homes. They decided that this was their opportunity, and were soon matched with a young Burmese family. Now – 3 years later – the two families have developed a close friendship.

“Our weekly meetings have focused on English lessons, but have also allowed us to help out in practical ways,” Keith and Lisa explain. Lisa, who retired from a long career as a teacher, prepares the English lessons each week, while Keith has enjoyed helping their new neighbors set up their computer and organize their finances.

By combining their individual strengths and volunteering together, they have been able to support the family more holistically as they adjust to life in their new community. “We have also become ‘grandparents’ to their son and daughter, and celebrated holidays at our home together,” they beam. “This whole experience has been so rewarding for us.”

Serving as an English tutor is just one way that couples and families find to volunteer together with World Relief. Parents and their children can also participate together as summer youth club volunteers, families can organize donation drives together, and Good Neighbor Teams are often made up of spouses, parents and children all serving side-by-side.

Roxanne and Jason, who volunteer together with their four young children are thrilled by the opportunity WRDA gives them to serve as a family. "For us, volunteering with our kids is about helping them understand what welcome and extending love looks like. We believe talking about how Jesus invites us to love our neighbors is not enough—we need to engage in that act of loving," Roxanne says. “This means we spend time with folks who may look, speak or dress a bit differently, but as we move past these initial differences our kids learn to see the common humanity in each of us.” After visiting a Syrian refugee family recently, Roxanne and Jason’s daughter said, "Mama, I'm so thankful I have friends that are from around the world. Thanks for taking me with you."

Recently, volunteers have begun serving together in a new way as they welcome refugees and immigrants to their new homes, neighborhoods, and school districts. As In-Home Family Adjustment Tutors volunteers build a relationship with a refugee family with school-aged children and walk alongside them as they adjust to the U.S. school system. For 4-6 months, volunteers visit a family’s home, assisting the children with homework and helping the parents understand more about how they can support their children’s education.

Malita Gardner, the Children and Youth Program Manager for WRDA’s DuPage office, explains how In-Home Family Adjustment Tutors can help refugee families as they integrate into their new communities. “As a refugee student it is hard to keep up with homework, and as a parent it is hard to sort through and keep up with all the announcements, papers, and activities, all while learning English and perhaps having different cultural expectations about parental involvement.” She continues, “To be paired with a family who is still figuring out how to adjust to these changes and to be able to practically help both the student in their academics and the parents in adjustment is a gift, and transforms both families in different ways.”

If you would like to volunteer with your family as an In-Home Family Adjustment Tutor, or in another capacity, you can get started by filling out a new volunteer application.

I first noticed the dolls. They are life-sized—ages 5, 3, and newborn. They spend their days in classrooms full of adults from Burma and Nepal, Sudan and Eritrea, Vietnam and Ukraine. They are the voiceless volunteers helping Jill Braselton teach refugees and immigrants how to keep their families safe. Their task? Impassively and repeatedly being buckled into car seats.

Car seats challenge even the most capable adult. They are something we grunt and groan over as we struggle to stuff children plump in diapers or jackets under binding buckles in small spaces. Do they face forward or back? It’s complicated.

Complicated for someone who has been using one since the ’80's and can read the English labels on the side.

For someone from another country who may have never owned a car, car seats—and even seatbelts—speak a foreign language. Yet, they speak of life or death. As Jill says, “When you don’t know what you don’t know—like you don’t know you’re supposed to wear a seatbelt—if your child is severely injured or dies in an accident, the weight of it would be horrible.”

Her goal is to give information and resources to keep refugee and immigrant children safe.

Jill, a nurse who has served with Central DuPage Hospital for thirty years, longed to make a difference in her childhood community of West Chicago. After being part of a field study on booster seat use, she observed that some residents didn’t have the resources or the understanding they needed. She knew she had to help, and she knew what to do.

Jill knows car seats. And she knows courage.

Jill found an opportunity with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) for car seat grants so she wrote one. IDOT responded. Jill then asked Wheaton Bible Church (WBC) if they could store a bunch of car seats and they agreed.

“Now what do I do?” she asked the Lord. “I have the seats, but how do I get them to the people?”

While partnering with WBC to distribute the car seats, Dan Jealouse told Jill’s story to his wife Karen who works for World Relief. They knew of an immediate need for a car seat for an Iraqi family expecting their second baby. “Can you help?” they asked Jill. Jill was ready.

Jill is a Christian and wants to do what God has gifted her to do. “I know car seats,” she explains. “It is a small piece of the puzzle, but it is protecting people and giving them information to care for their families.”

Where does she keep finding the money for them

“I always tell people that my program is on a faith-based budget,” she says. “If God wants me to do it, he’s going to give me the money. And it is unbelievable. I’m like—-God what else do you want me to do? When you are doing what God wants you to do, it’s crazy what doors will open and what doors will close.”

Using generous grant money from IDOT and her hospital, Jill distributes between 300-500 car seats a year. She charges family members just $5 for each—a way to give each client ownership while still being affordable.

Is she making a difference? Although it is hard to prove that what you do for injury prevention matters, she knows she is. She has seen the number of traffic citations for child safety drop dramatically in the years when she is able to provide more booster seats and rise when she cannot. She may not know details of lives saved or injuries prevented, but she trusts that God is at work.

Jill also provides training on seatbelts, drunk or distracted driving, pedestrian safety, and bike helmets—which she hangs from the handlebars of bikes donated to World Relief. She longs to do more, especially in the areas of fall prevention for the elderly and home safety for young newly-arrived families.

I ask if there are any skills she wish she had more of and she doesn’t hesitate in her answer. “Language. I wish I could speak Spanish, Burmese, and Nepali.”

Jill desires language because she isn’t afraid to get to know her clients. She decries the news that tells only the bad about refugees—-most of which isn’t true. She goes to their homes and sits in their living rooms. “That is how you get to know somebody,” she says matter-of-factly. “I’m not afraid. I wish I could tell people to not be afraid.”

Jill loves what she’s learned about people from other cultures. She admires their desire hunger for knowledge. There is no expectation from World Relief families that they deserve the gift of a car seat. They are “so appreciative of everything and very thankful. So kind. They will do whatever they can for their families.”

One sweet memory was when she was able to help a new refugee family who had an older child with significant disabilities. They could not transport the child in the car until Jill fitted the child with a car seat. They can now get to doctor’s appointments safely.

Yet she’s humble. “Car seat safety is a small world,” she acknowledges. “There is so much need—basic needs like food and shelter. I’m part of a bigger picture, just one piece of the puzzle. It’s a tiny thing but so important. It’s protecting life, preserving life. So that’s why I do what I do.”

“I love working with World Relief,” continues Jill. “I desire to try and provide the best I can.” Jill is a model of love in action.

By definition, a refugee has fled danger. Thus, safety is a gift. And the puzzle piece that Jill provides—safety in the car, especially for a child—is priceless.

Jill’s comforting message to her refugee and immigrant clients? “You have the ability to take care of your own family and be safe. You are safe here.”

When he thinks about the very first bicycle he received as a child over 60 years ago, a smile spreads across his face. He remembers how it glinted in the sunlight and the many happy hours he spent riding it through his neighborhood. He also recalls how, a bit later in life, he used a bicycle to commute to and from work for several years. Now, he spends hours each week in his garage workshop refurbishing donated bicycles for refugees, the homeless, and others who might need an alternative form of transportation.

“It started when my daughter introduced me to a local Syrian refugee family and I began visiting them weekly to help them practice English and answer questions they might have about life in the U.S.,” Don reminisces. “Only two of their three boys had bikes. That just did not seem right, so I started scrounging for a third.” He found a used bicycle and repaired it for the young boy.

“I took him for a ride and realized that he was not familiar with multi-speed bicycles, so I showed him how to operate it. The result of all this was three kids who had a great time riding their bikes around the apartment complex and going on a few excursions in the forest preserve with me and their dad.”

Don wanted to connect with even more refugee families in his community, so he completed World Relief DuPage/Aurora’s (WRDA) volunteer training and was quickly matched with a family from Nepal as a friendship partner. He wanted to get bicycles for these new friends as well. “I learned that World Relief gets donated bikes, but that many of them are not roadworthy. So I offered to fix some for them.”

Now Don has over 35 bicycles from WRDA and People’s Resource Center stored in his garage workshop, waiting to be refurbished and donated to a refugee family or someone else in need. He makes the necessary repairs and gives each bicycle a detailed cleaning. “I want to get them as close to ‘showroom clean’ as possible,” Don explains. “They may not be new, but I want them to look new! The smiling faces of the families I have delivered bikes to make all the elbow grease worth it.”

When Don delivers a refurbished bicycle, he offers a service contract to go along with it. “If I have prepped a bike for someone to ride to work and something goes awry, I don’t want them to miss work. I will come get it and fix it on the spot.”

Don, a mechanical engineer, has always enjoyed tinkering with bicycles in his spare time, but since he began repairing bicycles for refugees he has discovered the many ways that refugee families can benefit from them. “If someone has a job opportunity but lacks a vehicle, a bike can be a huge enabler,” he says. Having a reliable, roadworthy bicycle can make it possible to travel to and from work. “Second,” Don continues, “for teenagers whose friends live in different apartment complexes around the area, a bicycle enables normal socialization.”

“Finally, families with limited means are as keen on getting their children playthings as any of us are,” Don reflects. “Getting a six-year old his or her first bike is as big a thrill for me as it was to do the same for my own children, and it brings the parents so much joy to be able to watch their kids riding and having fun with their friends.”

Like so many of World Relief’s volunteers, Don has found a way to use his unique skills and passions to bless refugee and immigrant families. The joy he feels as he prepares each bicycle and delivers it to one of our new neighbors is what we want for each of our amazing volunteers.